False Cognate
False cognates are pairs of words in the same or different languages that are similar in form and meaning but have different roots. That is, they appear to be, or are sometimes considered, cognates, when in fact they are not.
Even if false cognates lack a common root, there may still be an indirect connection between them, and they can still be helpful in learning another language.
Read more about False Cognate: Phenomenon, Examples, "Mama and Papa" Type
Famous quotes containing the words false and/or cognate:
“If I be false, or swerve a hair from truth,
When time is old and hath forgot itself,
When waterdrops have worn the stones of Troy,
And blind oblivion swallowed cities up,
And mighty states characterless are grated
To dusty nothing, yet let memory
From false to false among false maids in love
Upbraid my falsehood.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“Or of the garden where we first mislaid
Simplicity of wish and will, forgetting
Out of what cognate splendor all things came
To take their scattering names;”
—Richard Wilbur (b. 1921)